10 WWE Moments That Shocked The Wrestling World

Arguably the most infamous day in the history of the wrestling business, the double-murder-suicide involving Chris Benoit and his family in June 2007 is a tragedy that still lives strong in the minds of wrestling fans across the globe.

Much like the assassination of JFK, Kurt Cobain's suicide or Princess Diana's car crash, the news of the Benoit family tragedy is one that conjures up vivid memories of time and place, such was the impact of the horrific events.

On 25 June, news broke that Benoit - absent from the previous night's Vengeance: Night of Champions PPV - had died. WWE was set to present a three-hour special of Raw, containing the resolution of a fictional storyline involving the death of Vince McMahon. Thankfully, that idea was scrapped the moment the very real news of the Benoit deaths became apparent, and instead the show became an impromptu tribute.

As the day went on, the horrific details of the event began to emerge. Benoit had murdered his wife Nancy and seven-year old son Daniel, before committing suicide. On the following night's ECW show, Vince McMahon appeared once more, this time to distance himself and the company entirely from Benoit. In the wake of the tragedy's circumstances being made clear, the previous night's tribute seemed wholly inappropriate.

WWE and the wrestling industry itself were immediately put under intense scrutiny. Mainstream media attention followed but not in the way Vince would have liked. Public accusations of steroid abuse soon evolved into a moral panic of sorts that ultimately saw WWE reign in their "Attitude" and go PG a year later.

Over a decade on, the ripple effect of the Benoit murders is still being felt. It was only in 2016 that the WWE Network began to timestamp Benoit matches on past events, albeit without reference to the man himself. His name has not been mentioned on WWE television in over a decade.